How are black surfaces able to be glossy?

Question

Black is said to absorb all colors of light, so why can a black surface be reflective, such as a black painted car.

In: Physics

Answer 1

For one, a painted black car has a shiny coating on the outside which will make the sun reflect on it. Most blacks are not true black. True black is not a color because true black will not reflect any light. If you look up videos of the color vantablack, you can see how much light is absorbed by it (keep in mind vantablack is still a color/not true black, but it does absorb much more light than other blacks